The Complete Game Startup Turnaround

HD Redux Edition

When even 27 million downloads and 300.000 DAU can’t keep us safe

Slides: www.slideshare.net/VGVisionary

Question

How much are you willing to sacrifice to do something nobody else is doing?

Table of contents• The story of Critical Force Entertainment

• What does a damn game startup turnaround look like?

• The lessons we’ve learned so you don’t have to go through this crap

• Summary

• Questions

Who am I?This is a talk by

Vlad MicuHead of Studio at

Critical Force Entertainment

Used to be the PR Manager of

Grambleworld.com

Did production, game design and creative direction for

arkavis Siam co. ltd. in Thailand

Wrote for many other international outlets includingGamesauce.org, TechInAsia.com,

PocketGamer.biz, Control Magazine, Gamer.nl, XBLAFans.com, Casual Connect

Magazine and many more.

@vgvisionary

Partners & Clients

Where does this all come from?• 600+ developers

interviewed

• Personal start-up experience

• Advising multiple international studios & getting tons of advice

• Reading a BUTTLOAD on the interwebz & listening to other devs.

Not enough to succeed!The past 9 months looked like this: • (A) Post traumatic stress from

layoffs, • (B) then just hoping the wheels

don’t fall entirely off the car, • (C) then investing in product

pipeline, • (D) then on-boarding new team

members and leads, then — and this is the place we’re at now —

• (E) solving for a repeatable viable business model.

Coincidence• Jason Gold

This talk is inspired by a blogpost on Startup Turnaround by Jason Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Fab (betashop.com)

He took a lot of words right of my mouth…

“The experience we will gain in this turnaround will be the most valuable experience of our lives.”

– Random Fab Employee

Our challenge: A complete startup turnaround

• Team Culture• Legal Concerns• Funding• Staying alive• Investors

#1 What is our culture?• Team = Not a family, but

a well-oiled machine.

• Responsibility > Authority

• The ‘24H bother’-rule

• Weekly reports

• Shareholder agreement“I can say with confidence that Fab will win or lose based on our ability

to assemble and manage the right people for right now.” – Jason Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Fab

Adding the right people

Ben + Minh = 25+ years of game development experience

Do we foster young talent the right way?

• First month of intensive research & training

• Giving them more responsibility

• The simple rule: make informed decisions based on proven practices.

Free or Unpaid internships?

#2 Do we optimally exploit our own products?

300+ websites iframed the web version of Critical Strike Portablefrom Kongregate.com

Solution: Funnel

CriticalStrikePortable.com

Early results

Success!

Now

2 Million users!

Earning us 19757.59 euros from Feb 25 – September 17th 2014

#3 How are we handling our budget?

• Monthly burn-rate: +- 20.000 euros• Major budget cuts!• Improve our existing

revenue sources– ad optimization – IAP design

• Find alternative sources of revenue

Bootstrapping: my example

• No salary• Living in the office• Travel costs covered

as a speaker• Computers from

university• Collected cans on the

street for ‘pant’ (Finnish for change)

http://blog.kurtvarner.com

Kurt Varner lived in his car for 4 months, renting a coworking space and using a gym subscription to shower

Petsku from Zorg Entertainment sold his Transformers to fund his startup and game AG Drive

http://i.imgur.com/yacucU1.jpg

The BetaDwarf team lived in a university classroom for 7 months before getting discovered and kicked out

= Perfectly alligned jobs that allow you to work on/prepare for your own dreams

(Smart) Work for Hire

Early results

“The Last Tinker is particularly eye-catching for being so colorful in a Viva Piñata-esque manner” – Destructoid

At first, I thought The Last Tinker: City of Colors was a childish game. It turned out to be the game that has made me smile the most in the past year. – TheDailyChill.co.uk

"The Last Tinker is a colorful and truly beautiful game." - IndieMag.fr

“Although The Last Tinker feels like a blending of different genres and earlier games, the gorgeous art style and creative story offer a vibrant new appeal.” – VentureBeat

115 Preview articles from February – April 2014

YouTubers

47+ YouTube videos from February – May 2014 with a total of 750.000+ views

Final Results

153 Reviews published after launch on Steam

AppCampus

There is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’

#4 Is all of that enough for us to keep running?

Focus > Growth• Different platforms

• Reskinning

• Growing audience

• 3rd party devices

• SDKs SDKs SDKs

We’re a fucking start-up!“What is Fab right now? Right now it’s a fucking startup. It’s really hard. It’s intense. It’s a struggle. It’s ambiguous. It

changes a lot. It’s all consuming. It’s a lot of sausage making. It’s working weekends to hit numbers and dates. It’s stretching people

beyond their comfort zone. It’s insisting on doing it better even when it’s already pretty good. It’s being brutally honest about gaps and weaknesses. It’s one day you’re headed in one direction and the next day another, because the first move wasn’t the best move. It’s

being ok with things not working because that creates opportunities to learn how to fix it.

It’s a fucking startup.”

– Jason Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Fab

Vision: become the Riot Games of Scandinavia!

Company Mantra: Become market leader of real-time multiplayer mobile

games with a competitive e-sports community

Different attitude & vocabulary

Get standardized legal documents for your startup here: http://seriesseed.fi/

• Sustainable traction – who’s ever used that word?

• Cash flow positive– or this one?

• Share holders agreement

• Business plan!?

Having everything in written

• Every important meeting

• E-mail followup

• Contracts, jezus!

#5 Pitching = Knowing thyself• Know who you are and

who you aren’t

• Know what the other person wants and doesn’t have

• Use that to disarm your opponent and put him/her in the defensive

• Make yourself rare/scarceLearn from Eminem!

http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/18/how-to-get-an-mba-from-eminem/

The #1 Skill? Resilience

But be prepared

A support system helps

ColleaguesMentors &

PeersTherapist

FriendsA FUCKTON of books

Our result: we’re getting there

Progress, huzzah!

A closer look

We’re sustainable!

Take aways

Take aways

Take aways

Summary

•Team•Product•Funding•Vision•Pitching

Further reading• http://www.businessinsider.com/kurt-varner-lived-out-of-his-car-for-4-months-in-silicon-valley-2014-8• https://eliademy.com/catalog/appcademy-online/appcademy-dealing-with-investors.html• http://www.npr.org/2013/03/11/174030515/making-mistakes• http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/13/how-to-get-funding-as-told-by-august-capital-video/• http://reidhoffman.org/linkedin-pitch-to-greylock/• http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/06/24/the-margin-manifesto-11-tenets-for-reaching-or-doubling-profitability-in-3-months/• http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/how-five-men-are-changing-the-business-and-size-of-game-publishing• http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2014/08/whats-it-like-to-lose-100000000-at-facebook/• http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-08-06-dan-adelmans-advice-for-indies• http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/10/28/business-mentorship-and-muses/• http://www.businessinsider.com/if-someone-handed-steve-jobs-a-pen-this-is-how-he-wouldve-sold-it-2014-8 • http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-influence-anyone-2014-8 • https://medium.com/@morganb/ten-things-i-learned-researching-ten-of-the-worlds-fastest-growing-startups-

a53106e2599a• http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/the-entrepreneurs-creed-inner-beliefs-of-true-entrepreneurs.html• http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/06/24/the-margin-manifesto-11-tenets-for-reaching-or-doubling-

profitability-in-3-months/• http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/how-to-negotiate/• http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/18/how-to-get-an-mba-from-eminem/• http://betashop.com/post/83367408084/its-a-fucking-startup-why-are-you-here• http://www.incomediary.com/decoded-17-secrets-to-jay-zs-entrepreneurial-success• http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/03/26/the-psychology-of-automation-building-a-bulletproof-personal-

finance-system/#more-1528• http://lifehacker.com/make-46-meals-for-under-100-in-4-hours-1480339310• http://blog.readyforzero.com/how-to-create-a-budget/• http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/04/the-top-22-mistakes-of-first-time-ceos/• http://www.zef.fi/building-incredible-company-culture-buying-tesla-wont-salvation/ • http://www.businessinsider.com/etsy-chad-dickerson-blameless-post-mortem-2012-5• http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2013/05/10/5-things-founders-dont-talk-about/• http://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2013/06/07/70-disengagement-3-ways-to-engage-those-who-arent/?

utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter • http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/22/on-trust-founder-fall-outs-and-6-steps-to-getting-things-back-on-track/

Bonus tip: watch my other lectures

www.youtube.com/vgvisionary

Contact me

• @vgvisionary

• Mail me at vlad@criticalforceentertainment.com

• Slides: www.slideshare.net/VGVisionary

#imlonely

Thanks!

Questions?